HIV/AIDS brochure published by IOM Mauritania, it is distributed during sensitization sessions. Participants can thus exchange with their community using a paper medium.  The EU-IOM Joint Initiative in Mauritania plans to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS among 1000 people. The project's target populations are migrants, community leaders and beneficiaries of the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration4 programme. Sensitization is implemented to provide basic and  essential knowledge to reduce the transmission of sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS in the long-term. In partnership with the Mauritanian NGO Stop Sida, IOM is implementing these awareness sessions and organizing talks with target groups. Participants often mention difficulties in addressing this subject in a Muslim context, especially in classes with schoolchildren and students, as one teacher points out: «We live in a country where there are still taboos around the subject of HIV/AIDS, we cannot really answer children's questions in classes using certain precise and explicit vocabulary words such as: penis, female condom... Here people talk about marriage but between what is said and what is done, there is a big difference. Teenagers ask basic questions and want information, the subject is really interesting for them. Demonstrations are impossible, not only because of a lack of equipment but also because the society is very conservative. I had problems with the teaching staff after some courses on sex education. More anatomical models, more didactic terms, and above all, a speech without filters are needed to get the message across correctly.» These awareness-raising sessions are interactive and participatory, many questions and prejudices are raised. Exchanges are facilitated by the presence of the Mauritanian medical staff. Virologist, Zahra Fall Malick explains, «There is a tendency here to believe that Muslim clerics are not very open. Traditionally, premarital sex is of course prohibited, bu
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